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Many mothers and daughters are as close as any two people can be, but closeness always carries with it the need - indeed, the desire - to consider how your actions will affect the other person, and this can make you feel that you are no longer in control of your own life.

I believe that connecting with other moms is so important; after all, we are all on this crazy journey together and no one understands what we're going through better than each other.

In our youths, many of us suspected that being tied down to a partner and family might constrain us. But after 40, even that landscape starts to shift. Many singletons turn inward and start longing for the things so many of us longed to be free of in our 20s.

At midlife, I think a woman has more in common with her teenage children than anybody else. We all are kind of uncertain. We realize for the first time in either our lives or decades that we're in charge now.

I have always had a sense that we are all pretty much alone in life, particularly in adolescence.

While not impossible, it is especially challenging for teenage parents to develop bonds with their children. A high percent of them were themselves children of teenage parents and have never experienced appropriate parenting.

As I have gotten older, I am more of an independent woman, and my mom and I have our own lives, but we are still best friends and can be there for each other.

My father was never around, and my mother used to worry that the kids won't grow up to be connected to him.

I think in any relationship, even in the healthiest of relationships, we are all parents to each other at times. I think that's a normal, healthy sort of relationship. I think there are times when we're each a mother and a father when we need to be.